The Dance
by Yuuki Miyaka
Summary: [angst] This story continues the events in Forever Yours, although it can be read as a standalone fic.


**ElfQuest: Ebony's Weavings  
The Dance  
An Alternate Universe Fic  
by: Yuuki Miyaka**

Rayek sighed, ignoring the flash around him. He hated these places, hated the glitter and the fiercely pumping music, even hated, these days, the undulating bodies on the dance floor. He had never liked dance clubs, but had at least enjoyed the spectacle of the dancers. This time, however, there was no one with him to laugh at those silly humans. She was gone.

He came here, though he loathed the place, because she had enjoyed it here. And he wanted to remember her. He wanted to remember her as she had been here, glittering with beauty enough to outshine everyone, not as he had last seen her. He closed his eyes, allowing no tears to slip into his whiskey. He shook off the tears instead, trying to shake off the grief that came with them.

"Like to dance?" The words were barely heard over the loud music, and he started to shake his head. He didn't want to even look at another soul, if this was what it meant. He didn't want to chance losing someone else. The others, especially this last time, had been far to painful. But as he turned to the woman, he caught his breath in surprise.

"I'd like that." He stood, following her onto the dance floor just as the music changed from pulsating rhythm to gentle sadness. He started to leave. He hadn't meant to slow dance with her, with this ghost from the past who looked just like his dead love. But as he opened his mouth to tell her, something within him broke. Instead of speaking, he took her in his arms, holding her as if she were as delicate as a butterfly... Indeed, perhaps she was.

No attempt was made to talk over the music. Instead, they listened as the words began to filter down from the speakers. The silence allowed Rayek to pretend, at least for a few minutes, that he was holding her again.

**"Looking back   
on the memory of  
The dance we shared   
beneath the stars above**

For a moment,   
all the world was right  
How could I have known   
that you'd ever say goodbye?"

Rayek swallowed reflexively. Perhaps she hadn't truly said goodbye, but she had not been allowed to. The healers had felt it better if she not see him at the end. So, of course, he hadn't seen what had become of her until the howl, when Ember laid her wasted body out for the wolves to take. He didn't pretend to understand this ritual, but he accepted it because of who she had been.

**"And I . . .   
I'm glad I didn't know  
The way it all would end,   
the way it all would go.**

Our lives   
are better left to chance  
I could have missed the pain,   
but I'd've had to miss  
Another dance."

His arms tightened around this sprite who looked so much like her, and he buried his face in her hair, smelling, for a moment, the elf he had loved for so long. She didn't seem to mind, indeed she didn't even say a word. She merely strengthened her grip on his body and buried her own face in his neck. He breathed rose perfume, the kind she had liked to wear to these clubs, and shuddered softly as his mind turned back to the trip. The first "Field Trip," as she had laughingly called it, had pushed their relationship nearly to its breaking point. But their love had survived intact, and she had forgiven him, accepting him back into her life. Ultimately nothing had changed.

But the second trip, the one that had gone no more than seven years into the future, had been his undoing. He had gone for all the right reasons, had accepted that she wouldn't truly understand . . . . And he had never seen her again. By the time he arrived in the future, by the time he had found her again, she was already too ill to see him. And though she had been well only the day before to his perception, to hers he had missed her entire illness. He wanted her back, wanted to hold her once more. Perhaps that was why he had accepted this girl's invitation to dance.

**"Holding you,   
I held everything.  
For a moment,   
wasn't I the king?**

If I'd only known   
how the king would fall  
Hell, who's to say,   
you know I might have changed it all."

Not all. That was the one part where the song wasn't right. He would never change how much he loved her, would never change any part of their life together. There was only one thing he would have changed. He wouldn't have gone into the future, wouldn't have taken their child from her. Even if it meant losing their daughter, he wouldn't have abandoned his love.

**"And I...   
I'm glad I didn't know  
The way it all would end,   
the way it all would go.**

Our lives   
are better left to chance  
I could've missed the pain,   
but I'd've had to miss  
Another dance."

The words rang true in his ears, and he shook his head, trying to clear it. He wanted her back with all his might, but somewhere within him, he was healing. He could feel it, and the thought cheered him. By the time the last words were sung, he was singing them softly himself. He felt stronger than he had in years.

**"Yes, my life   
is better left to chance  
I could've missed the pain,   
but I'd've had to miss  
Another dance."**

The piano strains finished the song, and his partner led him off the floor. With a grin, she leaned up, kissing him softly on the cheek. As she did so, he asked her name. She whispered in his ear, then disappeared into the crowd, weaving gracefully through the packed bodies until he wasn't sure of what he had seen or heard.

Had she just said her name was Ebony?


End file.
